Imagineering a Union Pacific "Blunt-End" Dome Observation Car

Sorry but, no images are showing, i.e. "Image Not Found".

Hot Water posted:

Sorry but, no images are showing, i.e. "Image Not Found".

Thanks, Hot. I hope I've succeeded in fixing it. As you know, I'm not the hottest capacitor on the board.

The answer to your question is "there must be" but possibly he or she is someone with a 3D scanner who could copy your existing end piece in a CAD drawing you could have 3D printed. Or you  could check on Shapeways whether someone offers an HO version of these cars that could be scaled up, which I have done for UP auxiliary water tenders that no one makes in O scale.

The trouble in both cases is (a) cost and (b) you end up with a part in featherweight plastic that is not easy to match to an existing passenger car body.

My first thought was actually Union Station passenger car models, who make the flat ends of these cars in O but not it seems the round corners and roofs: see http://unionstationproducts.com/_4096_4.html

P.S. The HO scale roof piece is here: http://unionstationproducts.com/_tsp_504.html

Lionel's forthcoming UP 21" UP excursion car set is meant to include a blunt end dome observation car. If you are committed to an 18" set you obviously won't want that however. 

Good luck!

The new Lionel ABS passenger cars look great in the catalog and, not having invested heavily in aluminum, I may go that route.  Considering the broad appeal enhanced by 844's highly publicized return to service, Lionel may exert the effort to get it right - this time.  My objection to plastic cars is that they often look "plastic", witness the Empire State Express cars seen in Eric's Trains video, and they always sound "plastic".

I have a beautiful set of MTH Illinois Central equipment that was reasonably priced and looks great.  However, they are betrayed when they roll by.  I'm considering ways to dampen the "plastic" sound and will come up with something.  Perhaps that experience will prepare me for the UP cars.

Meanwhile, it finally occurred to me that I might find the required K-line part online - our friends at eBay are now searching for anything related.  Fortunately, this is a project that can sit on the back burner without sitting on my workbench - there isn't any room, anyway.

Thank you for your thoughts and the introduction to Union Station.  Shapeways was my first thought but, having no example to work from, I presumed that was out of the question.  However, "upscaling" an HO part is a real possibility; the K-line part in question is a lightweight piece of plastic, anyway.

if K-Line once made the car, I would think that Williams by Bachmann would have access to the dies for it and would be capable of making it once again.  Be nice if they offered it in a 21" configuration, too.

Paul Fischer

fisch330 posted:

if K-Line once made the car, I would think that Williams by Bachmann would have access to the dies for it and would be capable of making it once again.  Be nice if they offered it in a 21" configuration, too.

Paul Fischer

Those K-Line UP blunt-end dome observations occasionally show up on eBay, both the shorter version as well as the 21" SCALE version. The 21" SCALE version, all by itself, generally sell for well over $500! I would not expect Williams by Bachman to ever bring such cars to market, as they did not get the "tooling" for those K-Line extruded aluminum passenger cars.

Rapid Transit Holmes posted:

........Having explored the world of Lionel and K-line passenger equipment, it would appear that only K-line built a 18" blunt-end dome obs and that the species is all but extinct.....  

K-line never made an 18" blunt end dome.  It was only a 21" car.

BTW, that's my picture.  Looks like I have made the popular 'search engine'...haha.

Hot:  Now that I think of it, that tooling for the scale streamlined cars, did not go to Bachmann.  Williams already owned their tooling for those extruded cars.   Their rear end design was for a conventional "boat tail" obs.  Okay, so who did pick up the old K-Line passenger car tooling?  K-Line used to make them in 15", 18" and 21" lengths to suit all users.  

They also had done a very credible job of making the Milwaukee Road's Skytop Lounge car ends.  In fact, they replicated the Skytop Parlor cars on the outside and tried to represent the Skytop Pullmans on the inside.  That made the cars incorrect for either use.  I tried to point that out to Maury Klein at the time, but he just ignored me and said no one would know the difference.  When I got my car, I gutted it and installed a correct interior with individual rotating seats and no bedroom partitions.  These cars would also be do a re-run once of these days.

Paul Fischer

fisch330 posted:

Hot:  Now that I think of it, that tooling for the scale streamlined cars, did not go to Bachmann.  Williams already owned their tooling for those extruded cars.   Their rear end design was for a conventional "boat tail" obs.  Okay, so who did pick up the old K-Line passenger car tooling?

I'm not at liberty to say, as the information was told to me in confidence some years ago.

 K-Line used to make them in 15", 18" and 21" lengths to suit all users.  

Paul Fischer

Hot Water posted:

 

I'm not at liberty to say, as the information was told to me in confidence some years ago.

 

 

Go ahead and spill the beans.   It's okay, the statute of limitations is up.   

Wouldn't it be cheaper and quicker to carve one out of wood, or even plastic?  I assume that writing the program to drive a printer would take about three times the effort that a wood end would require.

if you wanted to make a bunch of them, maybe the computer method would be better . . .

Once, again, I've proven that I'm not very bright or perceptive.  Exhaustive, exhausting web searches finally revealed a Lionel foursome of UP equipment which included a "blunt end obs"!  This set (plus 2 add-on cars) was advertised in Lionel's 2015, Volume 2 catalog right above the MILW cars that I drooled over and now own.  The catalog artwork is so poor that you'd never guess that the last car was an obs, unless you had foreknowledge.  Lionel is now in HOT WATER with a number of OGRers thanks to their apparent "misrepresentation" of the feedwater system on their UP 838.  You couldn't prove it by me but it is another example of the need for clarity and accuracy.

Thanks to a subsequent lack of judgement, I now own those six cars and have a cast plastic blunt obs end which I'd like to have copied:

Since 3D Printing is far beyond me and, based on other comments (above), very expensive, I am studying the feasibility of having copies cast in aluminum.  I know that sand castings can be very fine and there are a number of outfits that advertise their services on the web.  I'll start working the phones this week, however, I am wondering if any of you have had any experience in this area and can offer advice in this regard?

I'm also wondering if there are standard versions of Armour Yellow and Harbor Mist Grey that are guaranteed to match Lionel rolling stock?

Let me get this straight...THAT flat end observation piece came from the 18" Al set Lionel offered in the 2015 VOL II?  I'm blown away...do you have the specific 4 pack product number?  Just curious...

I may have considered THAT set had I known...Alas, I'll keep my K-line sets...

As for paint, you may contact Lionel and ask for some 'touch up' paint.  May be a PITA to get.

There's a lot of different shades of yellow and grey...like red....or any other color.

Good luck, keep this thread updated.  Interested to see how it turns out.

I can only help on the paint front. I find that the "Tru-Color" versions of Amour Yellow and Harbor Mist Grey are a very good match for Lionel's paint. Tru-Color is pretty much the best option out there with other model railway paint suppliers going off the scene. Of course you have to allow for the effects of dust and exposure to light; it's that as much as anything else that makes it difficult to match manufacturer's paint.

86TA355SR posted:

Let me get this straight...THAT flat end observation piece came from the 18" Al set Lionel offered in the 2015 VOL II?  I'm blown away...do you have the specific 4 pack product number?  Just curious...

I may have considered THAT set had I known...Alas, I'll keep my K-line sets...

 

Are not the last 18" SP and Pennsy sets blunt end Obs as well?

86TA355SR posted:

Let me get this straight...THAT flat end observation piece came from the 18" Al set Lionel offered in the 2015 VOL II?  I'm blown away...do you have the specific 4 pack product number?  Just curious...

I may have considered THAT set had I known...Alas, I'll keep my K-line sets...

 

Dear 86TA355SR

Yes, it's true, they're in Volume II.  Here is the link to the eBay listing which even has a photo of the blunt end obs car end casting and the embarrassing amount of money that I spent to support my addiction:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/122034...e=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

J. Lionel Cowen should take a page from eBay seller Jonathan's playbook and provide more "explicit" catalog illustrations of their products so that we have some clue as to what they're selling.  The illustrations in the 2016 catalog touting what should be a gorgeous UP Excursion Set, though larger, are no better.  Though it's a small price to pay for living in God's country, I'm located about 600 miles from my LHS (Local Hobby Shop), so visiting to see a product displayed costs almost as much as the purchase price - I have no choice but to rely on OGR reviews, catalogs, dealer websites and eBay listings.  However, in today's BTO environment, we're all in the same boat, even if you live in a highly populated Hell Hole like Chicago, etc:  we must pre-order, then like it or eBay it.  Some choice.

BobbyD posted:

Are not the last 18" SP and Pennsy sets blunt end Obs as well?

I have an SP 18" set (Shasta Daylight) and true to the prototype the observation car is not blunt ended but tapered/boat shaped (for want of a better word).  I can't recall any recent Lionel SP set that has anything different.

Pennsy on the other hand I think is different and there have been Lionel offerings over the years that included blunt end observation cars. Not sure how recent any of these are but in any case I have not seen a blunt end piece listed as available on Lionel's replacement parts site.

BobbyD,

I don't know...I only model UP.  Wouldn't be surprised though as Lionel has done similar 'marketing strategy' before!